I'm currently performing my happy dance because the main conference schedule is now live and kicking on the ESC Boston 2016 website.

(Source: pixabay.com)

This year, ESC Boston, which will take place April 13-14, 2016, at the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center, boasts four main tracks:

• Embedded Hardware Design & Verification
• Embedded Software Design & Verification
• Connected Devices and the Internet of Things (IoT)
• The ESC Engineering Theatre

As you'll see from the schedule, each of these tracks contains a hand-picked selection of amazingly tempting tasty technical treats for your delectation and delight.

We will be looking at some of these sessions in more detail in future columns. The main thing for the moment is to be aware that the Early Bird pricing deal is only good until Friday, February 5, 2016 (there are also group discounts and student, education, and government discounts), so it would be a good idea to register as soon as possible.

Also of interest is the fact that ESC Boston will be co-located with three partner events: BIOMEDevice New England, Design & Manufacturing New England, and PLASTEC New England. The really cool part is that we will all be sharing the same humongous exhibit space, so ESC attendees will get to see all sorts of mega-interesting and eye-opening stuff (it's hard to think of a system that's more embedded than one that's located in the human body, for example).

I'm very much looking forward to seeing you there. I'll be easy to spot — the guy meandering his way around looking distracted and confused and sporting an uber-cool Hawaiian shirt (I just dispatched the butler to order some new ones from my bespoke tailor especially for the occasion).